In the current state of integrated circuit technology, an integrated circuit device will often be in the form of a die or a chip. One or more die sometimes will be mounted onto a carrier substrate to form a package. Although carrier substrates may be suitable for many applications, it adds to the overall size and expense of the package.
Efforts have been made to eliminate the use of carrier substrates. For example, one method is to place a die active-surface down, encapsulate the back surface of the die, turn the die active-surface up, and then, using thin film techniques to form interconnects on the active surface, interconnect the die to other components and the external world. Unfortunately, thin film techniques may be costly and complex.